Hamish Crawshaw crowned APT Taiwan 2020 Main Event champion

The Asian Poker Tour crowned Hamish Crawshaw its newest Main Event champion! Crawshaw topped a field of 82 entries to claim TW$ 725,200 (~US$ 24,200), the APT Championship Ring, and APT Main Event Guardian Trophy. 

The Main Event ran from March 6 to 9 at partner / host venue Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association. Day 2 ended with Taiwanese pro Chi Jen Chu delivering the bubble to form the final 9 players. They returned today for the race to the crown. You can relive the Final Table via APT Twitch. You can also read up on the previous days action via the Live Updates.

Buy-in: TW$ 33,000 (~US$ 1,100)
Entries: 82
Prize pool: TW$ 2,386,200 (~US$ 79,300)

Payouts
1st Hamish Crawshaw – New Zealand – TW$ 725,200
2nd Ho Cung Yi – Taiwan – TW$ 483,400
3rd Chi Jen Chu – Taiwan – TW$ 336,000
4th Chin Wei Khong – Singapore – TW$ 242,700
5th Hsien Hua Chin – Taiwan – TW$ 181,500
6th Liu Chen Yi – Taiwan – TW$ 140,100
7th Vincent Huang – Australia – TW$ 111,200
8th Yi Wei Peng – Taiwan – TW$ 90,600
9th Carter Ching Wei Chen – Taiwan – TW$ 75,500   

This was Crawshaw’s first APT Main Event final table appearance and first APT title. He eliminated four of the six Taiwanese finalists seeking the glory. Crawshaw is the second Kiwi to win an APT Main Event title. Read how he shipped it via the full recap below. 

Final Table recap

The final day opened with Hamish Crawshaw in the driver’s seat. One player was missing, Hsien Hua Chin (seat 3), who finally made it after two players busted.

The first four players to fall were the entering short stacks with 9 bbs or below. On the first hand, Taiwan’s Carter Ching Wei Chen was railed in 9th place by Vincent Huang. Chen’s A J was dominated throughout by Huang’s A Q

Carter Ching Wei Chen – 9th place

Ten minutes in, Yi Wei Peng and Liu Chen Yi faced off. Peng’s A 10 failed to improve against Liu’s 8 8 to award her a double up. Immediately after that loss the crippled Peng shoved with J 6 and Hamish Crawshaw sent him out with K 9 on a board that ran 6 7 7 A A, kicker played. 

Yi Wei Peng – 8th place

Following Peng to the exit was Vincent Huang who pushed his short stack on the small blind with 10 5 however his hopes of stealing the blinds and ante were crushed by big blind Chin Wei Khong with K 10

Vincent Huang – 7th place

Bust outs continued on the opening level with Liu Chen Yi out next. Several hands after her double up through Peng, she pushed with pocket queens but ran into Hamish Crawshaw‘s pocket aces to take 6th place.

Liu Chen Yi – 6th place

It took another thirty minutes for the next to fall. Before the trimming, Chin Wei Khong lost two costly pots, one to Chi Jen Chu and the other to Hsien Hua Chin. At the turn of the new level, Khong recovered some of the lost chips by eliminating Hsien. It was all in preflop. Hsien with A 10, Khong with 7 7, no hits on the board for Hsien. 

Hsien Hua Chin – 5th place

With more chips to play with, Chin Wei Khong entered a number of hands that cost him, losing pots to each of the remaining players including Ho Chung Yi who up until now was fairly quiet with a below average stack. His losses forced him to shove on the small blind with 10 4 that couldn’t get past big blind Chu’s A A

Chin Wei Khong – 4th place

Three-handed had Crawshaw still in hig command, Chu second, and Ho at half the average stack. Chu put pressure on his opponents by initiating a good number of the bets and raises. He ended up losing a sizable pot to Ho then ran into a big hand against Crawshaw that cost him his tournament life. On a board that completed 2 4 3 Q 4, Crawshaw triple-barreled pushing on the river. Chu called with A 4 trips, Crawshaw had A 5 straight. 

Chi Jen Chu – 3rd place

After 2.5 hours of fast final table action, heads up arrived between Hamish Crawshaw and Ho Chung Yi. Crawshaw was ahead nearly 6:1 in chips. The average stack was 100 bbs. 

Heads up was a grueling battle. It took four hours before the champion emerged. During that time, Ho doubled up three times while Crawshaw grinded him down. The first one Ho had A 8 to Crawshaw’s A Q, the board granted the flush 3 K 2 K 4.

The next double up Ho had K Q, Crawshaw with A 8, the board ran 5 K 2 9 10. The third double up both players were all in on the river of 7 7 7 9 9. Ho had Q 7 quads to Crawshaw’s 9 10 full house. This evened them up. 

Leadership switched back and forth until Crawshaw began to grind out more chips from Ho’s stack. This led to the final hand. All the chips were out front on a board showing 7 Q 4 9. Ho had Q J top pair flush draw, Crawshaw ahead with 9 7 two pair. With the river 9, Crawshaw shipped it to become the APT’s newest Main Event champion.